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Day 5 - Rota Vicentina to Aljezur

Odeceixe is the end point of a continuous stretch of Fishermen's Trail and the journey south is now on the Historic Trail that has arrived at Odeceixe from San Teotónio. It's not the end of the Fisherman's Trail however, and the green and blue waymarks return to mark a series of circuits that head west to the cliffs from the inland Historic Trail.

Leaving Aljezur

On the stretch from Odeciexe to Aljezur there are two Fishermen's Trail circuits. The first at the beginning heads back down the south side of the Siexevalley (a lot of road walking) from Odeciexe to the coast, climbs onto the cliffs before heading inland again and rejoining the Historic Trail. This increases the total journey from 18 to 23km. The second Fisherman's Trail variant kicks in at the other end of the journey to Aljezur and has a similar impact on walking distance. Although we had originally planned to walk the second variant poor weather put us off and we walked straight to Aljezur.

The endless canal

Without the variants it’s a very easy 18km walk, totally flat and without any of the sandy going that slowed things down on the cliff top journeys. Expect to complete the journey in 4 hours.

To break the walk up you can stop at Rogil. It's an uninspiring town, but has a range of facilities including a coffee shop with an interesting range of sweet potato cakes reached at the northern edge of the town. Sweet potatoes are revered in this part of the world.

On the heath

The route is both easy and just a little boring. For most of the journey it follows an irrigation canal across a featureless agricultural landscape and onto a wild sandy heath. Leaving the canal, which seems to fizzle out, it continues across the heath before descending through an old pine forest down into Aljezur.

The walk was pleasant, but after the recent excitement of the cliff top walks and the deteriorating weather it was hard to sustain enthusiasm. The highlight was probably the frogs which guarded the way on the banks of the canal and then dived elegantly into the water with a pleasing plop.

Farewell drinkto Christine

Aljezur is a nice little town featuring an old Moorish castle on top of the hill south. It has several restaurants and the full range of services. We stayed at a small modern hotel, the Vicentina Aparthotel which was excellent and good value. The town is also on the express bus route back to Lisbon, which is just as well as Christine had a plane to catch next day.

4 comments:

I see you have sneaked off again John, just catching up with your Portuguese trip, I was away in Lanzarote starting the GR131. The Fisherman's Trail looks interesting for this time of year. Great pictures. What happened to the next few days?Have a good year. Regards John.

many thanks john for your informative reporting. my wife and i are planning a walk in early april. based upon your comments the first few days of the fishermans trail seem most worthwhile. a couple of questions. did u carry all your gear or arrange to send it on (by taxi?) to your next stop? and if 20km walks are for any reason too much in a day is it possible to arrange accomodation for shorter distances???

We carried our own stuff, always do I'm afraid and we have got it down to a fine art. Back-pack with about 6kg, less sometimes. Taxis will definitely carry your stuff to the next place or, more expensive, you book through InnTravel and they will sort everything out for you including accommodation.

There are different options available in terms of days but you'll need to spend a bit of time searching for places to stay.